Maria Eugenia Ruiz Loredo - Founding Member of the Escaramuza

This photo was taken in October of 1953 at the Rancho del Charro, today's National Charro Association, in Mexico City.

Maria Eugenia Ruiz Loredo is one of the first "amazonas" to ever ride in an escaramuza team. Alongside her sister Graciela and brother Arturo, she learned basic horse riding skills in a class with three other kids from the Camacho Elorriaga family at the Rancho del Charro in Mexico City.

 

The kids' parents decided to show off their choreographed exercises during a break at a "charreada," or Mexican rodeo. That was in 1953. The crowd loved it and the escaramuza was born. Today escaramuza teams are made up of exclusively female riders, who earned their place as athletes within the tradition of charreria in 1991 when their sport was declared an official charreria sport by Mexico's Charro Federation.

Maria Eugenia Ruiz Loredo rides on the first escaramuza team in 1953 at the Rancho Charro in 1953.

Below is a video of historic photographs of the first escaramuzas, with an 

interview by one of the other girls on the team, Guadalupe "Coco" Camacho.

Arturo Ruiz Loredo - Founding Member of the Escaramuza

Arturo Ruiz Loredo on Oct. 18, 1953

Did you know that boys rode in the first escaramuza ? In fact, the first team was evenly split between boys and girls: three girls and three boys.

Who would have imagined that back in 1953 a charreria performance was co-ed. It didn't last long however, just a few years, as the boys began practicing other charreria sports, like roping and tumbling cattle over. 

That left room for more girls to join and that's when the escaramuza became a female affair.

Arturo in Tepeji del Rio, Mexico. 2009

Today a professional horse trainer in Tepeji del Rio, Hidalgo, Mexico, Arturo Ruiz Loredo was just 5-yeras-old  when he rode alongside his two sisters Graciela and Maria Eugenia. The three other kids were from the Camacho Elorriaga family. Arturo reflected back on how it all started, with this comment:

"The escaramuza was not something that was preconceived, it wasn't  an idea that any particular person had who said we're going to do this and that, something planned. The escaramuza evolved like life." 

- Arturo Ruiz Loredo

Arturo at his horse training center in Tepeji del Rio, Mexico. 2009

The following video is an audio-slide show about the Escaramuza sport, featuring an interview with Arturo, by photographer Leslie Mazoch.

The below video is a collection of historical photographs of this first team, paired with an interview of Guadalupe "Coco" Camacho, one of the three girls on the team.